The Jewish Labor Committee today called on the FBI to take an active interest in apprehending the individuals responsible for the recent bombing of synagogues and Jewish centers. It also called for adequate police protection for Jewish institutions in the South.
“The FBI and the various state police systems must direct their attention and their investigative forces toward those groups which encourage or condone illegal activities under guise of preservation of the Southern way of life,” Adolph Held, chairman of the JLC, said in a statement. He pointed out that the latest bombings and threats make clear the situation of the Jews in the South in relation to the problem of desegregation.
“Jacksonville is a city in which there was no current issue of integration,” he said. “No suit had been filed for desegregation; no plans had been made by the school board for it; the synagogue concerned was not involved in any activity in behalf of it. Yet racist elements placed bombs at both the synagogue and a Negro school. Why? Because the drive of the segregationists fosters the rise of extremist groups. Racist elements are inevitably anti-Semitic as well as anti-Negro.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
